When will people learn that good writing is NOT a commodity, especially when it comes to website content? You can’t expect to get good quality content and only pay a penny a word!
Ok, let me explain what prompted this rant….
I’m a member of the American Writers & Artists copywriting group on LinkedIn. I received one of my regular emails from LinkedIn today with the latest discussions and comments from the group. One of the new discussions caught my eye. The headline read: SEO Friendly Content Writing – Only $1 / 100 words!!! Try now.
As an SEO copywriter, this headline piqued my curiosity, so I clicked the link to check it out. The discussion was from a website (whose name I won’t mention) that in fact promoted “SEO content writing” for a penny a word. This company also offered blog writing for the same price, but it charged a little more for press release writing – $5 for a 300 word article.
Naturally, I wondered what quality of writing this company could deliver for this extraordinarily low price. So, I read through THEIR website content, and was not impressed. Here is a typical paragraph:
We pride oursalves as one of leading content writing services provider and deliver quality content writing services in short time duration. We are capable to deliver 20-30 articles within 2-3 business days. You can send us your work and get cost effective web content writing services at affordable price quote.
As a native English speaker, I noticed a few things wrong with this paragraph right away.
- The third word in that first sentence is misspelled – it should be “ourselves” not OURSALVES.
- There are words missing in the paragraph, such as “the” and “of”
- There are two synonyms where there should be just one word – such as “short time duration”.
This is how I would rewrite the paragraph:
We pride ourselves on being one of the leading content writing service providers, and deliver quality content writing services quickly. We are capable of delivering 20-30 articles to you within 2-3 business days. Simply send us your request, and we will deliver high quality web content writing services at a price you can afford.
It looks to me as if this website was either translated from another language, or was written by someone who speaks another language besides English. Either way, the main problem I have with this site is that if their content is any indication, the articles it will deliver for this low price will probably be of the same “quality” – and I use that term loosely.
If you’re wondering what’s the harm in paying $3 for a 300 word article, I’ll tell you. You get what you pay for! Google wants you to put quality content on a website or blog that will appeal to your target audience. Now I’m not saying that all web content must feature perfect grammar. A sales page may include simple sentences, and even fragments, because it’s written in a conversational style. But the writing should make sense.
Here’s my advice for those of you who need help producing content for your website or blog. If you don’t have anyone in your company to do it for you, hire a qualified copywriter to do it, and prepare to pay them a decent wage! The funds should come out of your marketing budget. A new copywriter that is just starting out in the business may charge $50 for a 300 word article. But an experienced copywriter can charge 3 times as much. And that’s the difference. Experience!
Of course, before you hire anyone, you should ask to see samples of the writer’s work, and ask for references. Having well-written copy (with appropriate keywords!) on your site will keep Google happy, which should help your site rank well, and more importantly, convince your prospects to do business with you.
Visit my Contact page to request a free consultation about your web content needs, and I’ll be happy to speak with you.
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net